Local college students visit Israel during recent conflict with Hamas

Monday, January 19, 2009

By JD MALONE

The Express-Times

When Muhlenberg College freshman Jennifer Apple flipped on
her car radio Dec. 27 on the way to the airport, she heard a
report of Israeli airstrikes pounding targets inside the
Palestinian-controlled Gaza Strip.

The latest fighting erupted just as Apple and several other
local college students where prepared to visit the region.

"I thought, 'Great, we're going right when
it starts,'" she said.

Her weeklong trip, sponsored by the American Israeli Public
Affairs Committee, underwent a number of changes. An entire
day's itinerary was scrapped due to rocket fire. But,
the 19-year-old from Westchester, N.Y., said, once the group
was in Israel, the conflict in Gaza, which halted Sunday
after 22 days of fighting and the loss of 1,200 lives, was
not seen.

Apple and fellow Muhlenberg student Tom Holtz couldn't
hear explosions, but each morning their group of about 40
students read newspapers and was briefed by journalists,
politicians and educators.

"It gave us a good understanding of what was going
on," Holtz, a 22-year-old senior from Newton, Mass.,
said.

Apple said the group learned to think of the conflict as
part of a much bigger story -- a very complicated and
difficult story.

"It gave us a much wider lens for looking at the
situation," Holtz said.

For Lehigh University sophomore Marc Rein, of Bergen
County, the trip to Israel wasn't rooted in politics or
modern day issues. He toured the country for 10 days on what
is called a "birthright" trip. He said there was a
bit of trepidation among his friends before they left for
Israel on Jan. 4, but the director of Lehigh's Hillel
Society, Rabbi Seth Goren, allayed their fears.

"Naturally there was a lot of anxiety," Goren said. But the rabbi gave the students maps that showed where they would be going and how the sites were well out of the range of Hamas weaponry. He also related that during his own travels in Israel, he never felt unsafe or in harm's way....